The present invention relates to a second monitor for a computer system, and in particular a miniature monitor for showing a portion of the display of the larger monitor.
There are a number of systems which use multiple monitors. A number of companies produce multiple monitor systems which have a stand with two, three, or four flat panel displays mounted on them. Graphics cards have been developed to support multiple monitors. Typically, multiple parallel ports are used to used to connect to each of the monitors from the mother board or graphics card.
The Microsoft Windows 98™ software contains a dual monitor mode for allowing the driving of two separate images. For example, a Toshiba satellite XGA notebook can drive an internal and external display at the same time, one on a notebook's monitor and the other on a separate monitor, such as the user's desktop monitor. A number of software applications allows splitting of portions of the display between the two monitors. For example, Powerpoint 2000™ allows a screen show on one monitor and editing of the same show on another monitor. Outlook Express™ allows a list of e-mail messages on one monitor, and individual messages on the other. Other applications allow help screens and error messages to be displayed on a different monitor. See U.S. Pat. No. 6,018,340 for a description of the ‘virtual desktop’ that is implemented in Windows 98, in which the so-called desktop is extended across multiple monitors.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,682,486, issued to IBM, shows a system for the movement of windows, icons, etc. between multiple monitors using a “transport” region into which they are moved on a particular monitor.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,255,361, JP2190926A2, U.S. Pat. No. 5,043,919 et. al., (IBM), describe the technique of modeling a current-display and desired-display in computer memory, comparing them to determine differences, and sending update commands.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,646,261 describes a means for detecting changes to video memory and sending only the updated video information to the display. U.S. Pat. No. 5,959,686 describes a system with a primary monitor and a plurality of sub monitors, with a kind of serial daisy-chain for controlling the sub-monitors. The sub monitors receive the same video signal as the main monitor.